- Velvet's home village on Eastgand's eastern border. It is a humble place sustained by hunting and farming.
Aball, Village of Longing (郷愁誘う村 アバル Kyoushuu Izanau Mura Abaru?) is a small village found in Eastgand and is an important location in Tales of Berseria. It is the home village of Velvet Crowe and Laphicet Crowe.
Geography[]
Aball is a small village nested within the Morgana Woods. The entire area is surrounded by perpetual autumn trees that encompass most of Eastgand. Not far from Aball is the Tranquil Woods and the cape, which is the location of the Shrine of Tranquility, an earthpulse point that once held Innominat.
History[]
Seven years before the beginning of the game, Artorius Collbrande was found just outside the village in the Morgana Woods by Celica Crowe, who offered him a place to stay at the village. The man offered her a fake name of "Arthur". After a while, the two eventually fell in love, and were set to have a child. Unfortunately, during a Scarlet Night, Celica was killed when a daemon knocks her into the Shrine of Tranquility while she protects Arthur. The unborn child she carried was taken as the first sacrifice to Innominat, granting humans greater resonance, and allowing humans to see daemons. Devastated by the loss of his family, Arthur meets Melchior Mayvin, who convinces him to use his exorcist powers to revive Innominat. He then forges a pact with Seres, and plots for a way to finish the ritual.
Seven years later, Arthur still lives with Celica's younger siblings, Velvet and Laphicet. As the eldest sister left, Velvet is determined to take care of her family. Laphicet, however, who was sick, feels he is nothing but a burden on his sister. Destined to die from the "Twelve-Year Sickness" and after translating Arthur's book, he decides to offer his life as a sacrifice to revive Innominat for his sister's happiness. During this time, Laphicet left a copy of the book with a local merchant to purchase Velvet a new comb. It is later when they visit the Shrine that Arthur rescues the two from a daemon. When Velvet awakens on the Scarlet Night and finds out that Laphicet is missing, she rushes to the Shrine to find Arthur sacrificing her brother before her very eyes.
Devastated, she quickly rushes to her brother in an attempt to save him from falling into the Shrine, but Arthur cuts off her left arm, and both plunge into the Shrine's depths. Laphicet was then devoured by Innominat, and Velvet was expelled out of the Shrine with a new daemon arm. She is transformed into a therion, and blinded by rage, she kills all of the surrounding daemons who attack her. She then finds out that the daemons she has killed are various villagers Velvet knew, including her best friend Niko. After getting stabbed by Artorius, who has now revealed his true name, Velvet is captured and transported to Titania for three years.
In her quest to find the seven therions, the malak Laphicet leads Velvet back to her hometown to investigate the earthpulse point. Melchior, seizing the opportunity to trap Velvet, uses an illusion arte to transform the nearby daemons into the lost villagers, and convinces Velvet that they had all survived the Scarlet Night. However, due to a miscalculation about Velvet's inability to taste anything but blood, she catches on to Melchior's illusion, and breaks free of his control. She then saves the sixth therion from the Shrine of Tranquility, who turns out to be Niko's pet dogs, Orthie and Russ. The group then confronts Melchior, who steals Artorius's copy of Innominat's book. However, by pure luck, Laphicet's copy was not destroyed in the devastation of the village long ago, and the group manages to get a hold of it.
Since the Advent, Aball has remained uninhabited and abandoned for three years. No effort has been made to resettle back into the village due to the constant threat of roaming daemons around the area, and as a result, Aball fades from history entirely, presumably being destroyed by natural forces over time.
Etymology[]
Aball is an Old Irish word for "apple", and also the root of the name "Avalon", the utopian isle where the legendary weapon Excalibur was said to have been forged in Arthurian legend and also the final resting place of King Arthur after he sustained fatal wounds battling Mordred at Camlann. It is said in some legends to have been ruled by Morgan le Fay and her eight sisters. This likely ties in with the use of an apple in establishing Celica and Artorius' relationship, the fact that it is the hometown of Velvet, who acts as the "Morgan le Fay" to Artorius, as well as the fact that it is the site of the Advent, where Innominat, Artorius' "weapon" while armatized, was resurrected.